


Whatever Words I Say...

by lesbionics



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Swan Queen - Freeform, lyrics, other chars will pop up here and there, pre-relationship at the beginning, technically but not really a songfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-01
Updated: 2015-05-01
Packaged: 2018-03-26 16:52:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3857989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbionics/pseuds/lesbionics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma is under the influence of a spell that makes her only understand and talk in song lyrics. Now it's up to Regina to figure out what exactly happened to Emma and find a way to fix it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Whatever Words I Say...

**Author's Note:**

> The usual disclaimers apply. Not mine, used for entertainment etc. You know the drill.
> 
> This fic is set at an undetermined time, at some point when Regina and Emma are between getting friendly and bffs. Since I pretty much ignore the existence of Hook and Hood anyway, they ain't around. Either have never been or are long gone. Rumbelle's still going strong too.

"What in the world did you do to Emma?!" Violently the door to Mr. Gold's shop swung open as the mayor burst in and barked her question at him, dragging the confused and clueless looking blonde with her.

Looking up from whatever he was busying himself with Gold arched an eyebrow at the two women. "What makes you think I did anything to the savior? She looks just fine to me." At least physically he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. However, he doubted that Regina had brought her to him for no reason. He knew her better than that.

With a little growl Regina looked from him to Emma and let go of her arm. "Speak!" She commanded in a tone that made it clear that she'd better obey or else.

Glaring at Regina in annoyance Emma considered not to oblige her for just a moment but then decided to just go with it so she'd leave her alone again. She didn't even know what they were doing here. But apparently the stubborn brunette had somehow convinced herself that something was wrong and had immediately dragged her off. "No speech as long as I get nothing. But I got to get home, so let me free! This is not my home." Annoyed she crossed her arms and hoped Rumple would confirm once and for all that there was nothing going on.

"She's right about that, dearie. She does not live in my shop." Gold had a hint of a smile playing on his lips. Clearly the savior was in no mood to cooperate. He could discern an air of magic around her as she spoke but wasn't quite able to pinpoint what exactly was going on here. Not that he'd necessarily share that piece of information if he had it. One thing was for certain: This was going to be interesting and entertaining. Especially because it seemed as if Emma was still completely oblivious to whatever was going on with her.

Of course Gold was going to be difficult. Not that she had expected anything else, but just for once it would be nice if everything went smoothly. Actually, just for once it would be really nice if there wasn't a new magical problem they had to fix on a daily basis. By now Regina was completely frustrated. Between Gold playing coy and Emma not even acknowledging that clearly there was something wrong, she had to force herself not to lash out with her own magic. "Don't tell me you don't think it's weird how she speaks! I just ran into her at Granny's and I could tell right away there was something off when she ordered her coffee by telling Ruby 'One more cup of coffee for the road, one more cup of coffee 'fore I go to the valley below'. Of course at first I thought she was just being… well… Emma. You know what I mean. But look at her, she's even more unusual than usual."

And indeed, almost immediately after having said her piece, Emma had started wandering through his shop, picking up trinkets here and there and playing with them for a moment before moving on. It seemed as if she wasn't even aware of the conversation between him and Regina. Not that she didn't have the attention span of a toddler to begin with in addition to not wanting to be here right now. But aside from the thing with her coffee order that had made her look at them briefly, she was acting as if they were making pointless smalltalk. "Peculiar, indeed." He admitted as he continued to observe the blonde.

That was one word for it, but at least he was starting to catch on. Earlier at Granny's, when she'd gone to say good morning, she'd said 'hi' and Emma's response had been 'hello, is it me you're looking for?' But when she'd explained that she in fact hadn't actually been looking for her since it wasn't like she'd known the exact time when she was going to be there and had chosen that time to grab a cup of coffee herself, but that them running into each other while getting their morning coffees was merely a coincidence and then had asked about Henry, Emma had just stared off into space like she hadn't heard a single word. And at some point while she had tried to regain the blonde's attention, Regina had realized that Emma in fact didn't appear to hear or understand anything longer than a single word or sounds around her. And if that didn't have the distinct scent of spell or curse about it… So she'd just grabbed her arm and dragged her to Gold. But either he was still playing innocent or he really wasn't behind whatever had befallen her. "What I don't understand is what you're getting out of her not being able to comprehend anything longer than single word responses. And if you really aren't behind it, at least tell me how to fix her again!" Unfortunately she wasn't familiar with this particular spell and until she knew for certain what to do to fix her, Regina didn't want to risk making it worse by experimenting with things that might cure her.

"I can look into it and see what I can find out. But I'm not certain what this is either." Gold was sure it wasn't going to take him long to figure out what exactly was going on, who was behind it and what he had to do to fix it. And then maybe, eventually he would share that information. If Emma's life was in danger or her situation wasn't amusing to him anymore. Regina was wrong about one thing already, Emma definitely had understood her own words that Regina had quoted back to him. So he had a head start there. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some research to do." And with that he disappeared into the back room.

"Great, just great…" Muttering under her breath Regina snapped her fingers to get Emma's attention and pointed at the door to signal they were leaving again. At least the imp had said he'd look into it. But as far as she was concerned that meant nothing and now it was up to her alone to figure out what had befallen Emma. At least until the Charmings found out about this and were going to butt in and undoubtedly figure out a way to make things worse. She wasn't going to keep it from them if it turned out to be serious, but for now Emma was better off under her care and hers alone.

This was getting ridiculous! Regina was treating her like some sort of dog or something, dragging her off and snapping her fingers and all that. Apparently today her majesty had flipped the evil queen switch. But if she thought Emma was just going to fulfill her every whim, she had another thing coming. With an angry glare in her direction Emma crossed her arms and remained right where she was. "Graceless lady, you know who I am. You know I can't let you just slide through my hands. And wild horses couldn't drag me away."

Even in her weird state that damn woman knew exactly how to push her buttons. Graceless?! Regina had been called many a things but graceless had never been among them. Right now it wasn't even her fault that she had to come across somewhat harsh. It wasn't easy to communicate like this. But that little stab wasn't even the most infuriating part. "Oh of course. Five minutes ago you wanted to go home and now you don't want to leave. At this point I shouldn't even be surprised about that kind of behavior from you. You do realize that's the exact same reaction I'd get from a 5 year old, don't you?" She sighed when Emma just blankly stared at her again. "I might as well be speaking Chinese right now…" She could just poof Emma and herself to her office but that would just piss her off even more and make her more reluctant to cooperate. If only there was an easy foolproof way to get the savior to follow her… she hadn't raised a kid without learning a few tricks in these kind of situations though. Sweetly she smiled at Emma. There were some words she was almost certain the blonde wouldn't be able to resist. "Cookie?" Again she motioned towards the door and started walking.

If only Regina had dragged her off after she'd had breakfast! Now her stomach was grumbling and she was wondering what kind of cookies were being promised and if they were homemade. Knowing Regina they most definitely were. And they'd be delicious. Yeah, she was still pissed about being treated like a pet. And yeah, it was still beyond annoying that Regina kept talking to her in Elvish or whatever. Probably a ploy she'd cooked up with her parents to teach her the language. She sure as hell wasn't gonna play along though. Even if the whole town spoke to her like that, she'd just keep ignoring them until they gave up again. At least Regina wasn't all that strict and threw in English words every now and then. And as far as English words came, cookie was a very alluring one right now. Besides, the days of Regina wanting to poison her with baked goods were long over. Maybe once they were alone she'd fess up and give up with the Elvish nonsense. Plus there were going to be cookies. Yummy delicious cookies made out of yummy delicious cookie dough that Regina had personally kneaded with those yummy delicious delicate hands of hers. Okay yeah, she was sold. Not wanting to appear too eager though, she shrugged before she followed the mayor out the door.

Since she was in no mood to deal with running into townsfolk or risk anybody finding out about Emma's predicament, Regina poofed them to her kitchen as soon as Emma was out the door. Quickly she grabbed the cookie jar and then poofed them into the mayor's office. Here she could get to the bottom of this all in peace and if anything came up, she was where she was supposed to be anyway and people wouldn't have to go searching for them. Now how was she going to ask Emma if anything unusual had happened to her in the past 24 hours by using just one word? The blonde looked at her impatiently already though, so Regina motioned her to take a seat and held the cookie jar out to her. And of course she immediately grabbed the whole jar. But Emma being busy with all the cookies gave her time to search through her books and see what could cause somebody to suddenly start talking in riddles. So she sat down at her desk and started looking.

Just like she'd expected, the cookies were fresh and crispy and crunchy and sweet and chocolately and amazing. But what she hadn't seen coming was Regina just going about her business as soon as they got here. For a little while she watched as Regina flipped through her magic books, looking more and more stressed out and frustrated. So Regina really was in a hissy about something. But everything in town was alright for once. Henry was safe and sound at school, no monsters were flying around chasing them, no evil relatives trying to kill them, no curse threatening their existence. But maybe that was the problem. With all the insane drama they'd been through, Regina didn't know how to relax anymore and was trying to prepare for whatever came next? So she got up and held one of the cookies up right in front of her face. "Crazy little woman in a one man show, mirror queen, mannequin, rhythm of love, sweet dream, saccharine, loosen up."

Of course there were mentions about speaking in tongues and communicating by riddles in Regina's books. But nothing she came across seemed quite right. There was something here that she was missing. Nothing explained why Emma only understood single words and spoke like she did. It was always hearing impairments or speech modification, or speaking and understanding a whole different language. As she was about ready to set fire to all of her books, one of the cookies popped up right before her eyes. And what Emma said made her pause. She was sure she'd heard those very same words before somewhere. The mirror queen part in particular caught her attention. This definitely sounded familiar. But now Emma was nudging the cookie against her lips and Regina couldn't help but let out a little chuckle and smile at her. "So you decided to share, huh?" Obviously she wanted her to eat one herself, so Regina obliged and took a bite. As she chewed, she quickly scribbled down the words Emma had just uttered, not wanting to forget the exact wording of her new clue.

With a huff Emma watched as Regina went right back to ignoring her and working on what the hell ever had her panties up in a pinch. Red panties. Probably satin. Definitely with some lace. That really wasn't the issue at hand though. And why the hell did she keep catching herself wondering about Regina's underwear preferences? At the oddest moments no less. She didn't want to distract herself, she wanted to distract Regina who clearly was in desperate need of a day off. So she went around her desk and sat down on it right in front of her, broke off another piece of the cookie and plopped it into Regina's mouth. If it took feeding her, she could do that. But for starters, the queen was going to eat the whole cookie without worrying about work and magical menaces. And afterwards she had to get her out of the office somehow. She was sure she'd figure out something to accomplish that. Whatever it took to get her to stop working and go do something fun instead. "I wanna be the one to walk in the sun. Oh girls they wanna have fun. Oh girls just wanna have… That's all they really want. Some fun. When the working day is done, oh girls they wanna have fun. Oh girls just wanna have… girls, they wanna, wanna have fun. Girls. Wanna have…" As soon as Regina stopped chewing, she fed her the next piece and plopped another one into her own mouth.

Regina barely had time to finish writing before the frequent cause of her frustrations sat down on top of everything on her desk and force-fed her before she had a chance to object. Naturally the blonde had gotten bored and impatient and demanded attention and was now going on and on about girls wanting fun. Again with words she'd definitely heard strung together that exact way before. She now was sure that a, Emma kept quoting something and b, it came from this world. That narrowed things down some more. Already she had another piece of cookie in her mouth and Emma was chewing again too. Less nonsense, more chewing. Good. Was she trying to tell her anything beside being bored though? For a moment it had almost seemed flirtatious. Clearly she had to have been imagining that though. But there had to be a reason why she'd said 'girls want to have fun' opposed to 'I want to have fun.' And if that had been the case, Regina had no doubt that Emma would've at least tried to leave by now. But instead here she was, sitting in front of her, feeding her cookies. That had to mean she wanted to have fun with her, right? But then again there were many ways for women to enjoy spending time together. Things that friends did. Like feeding each other cookies during a quick break from work. This time, Regina moved a little bit closer to Emma and opened her mouth when she was ready for the next piece.

The image before her brought a laugh to Emma's lips. Madame Mayor, giving in to her and letting herself be fed with cookies and willingly participating. At that moment, when she saw Regina like this, with her mouth open and waiting for the next morsel, Emma decided she had to feed stuff to Regina more often. This was beyond adorable and a side of her she was sure Regina didn't just show to anybody. If they were in public right now, she doubted Regina would even allow this. Good thing they were still in the confinements of her office for now. Not that that changed her mind about getting Regina out of here though.

When Emma had finished feeding the cookie to her she'd immediately gotten a second and then a third and Regina had just let her continue to put piece after piece into her mouth. At some point, she'd absentmindedly leaned her arms on Emma's legs and she had to admit she was rather enjoying herself. It almost scared her a little how comfortable she was right now, touching the gorgeous blonde this naturally and her laughing with her and seemingly enjoying the moment just as much, like they didn't have a single care in the world. A little break had never hurt anyone after all. But there was an issue that needed resolving and as much as she wanted this moment to last much, much longer, she knew they couldn't allow themselves to completely loose track of what was going on. So when Emma was reaching for the next cookie, she shook her head and got up, brushing some crumbs off herself and straightening her jacket. It was time to get back to work again. And by now she had figured out where to look next. "Library." She announced to let Emma know about their next stop. What better place to look for quotes from this world than a place filled with books from this world?

She couldn't believe Regina's idea of having fun right now was to go to the library and let out a little whiny noise but then sighed. No matter what it takes to get her out of here, she reminded herself. And at least the library wasn't the mayor's office. Maybe they wouldn't have to stay there long and Regina just wanted to check something about whatever she really wanted to do. Maybe they had a 'How To Wear A Bikini 101' book and Regina just needed a template to poof herself into one and then go to the beach. Sure it was cold and she realized she'd never even seen anybody other than Ariel swimming around here before. But there had to be a quick magical fix for summer and sun and bikinis. "Yes, you'll be going loco down in Acapulco. The magic down there is so strong."

Whatever was going on in that head of hers right now, Regina had no clue about because that made no sense whatsoever. Except for maybe the bit about magic? Hopefully this was taken care of once and for all soon. And with that she poofed them into the middle of the library. "Silent!" She whispered to Emma when she saw Belle was there. The bookworm could help her with the menial tasks at least, so she walked over to her. "Where do I find out where exactly a certain quote is from? Also, I need all the books you have about a place called Acapulco. Apparently they have strong magic there."

"Uhm…" Belle froze dead in her tracks when Regina was in front of her out of a sudden. She hadn't even heard her come in. She noticed Emma behind her and the blonde gave her a little wave that she returned before turning her attention back to the evil queen. "Hi Regina… for the quote I recommend you check the computer. Are you planning a trip? And I thought there was no magic here outside of Storybrooke? Or are you talking about a different Acapulco than the one in Mexico? How about you check the computer and I'll go see what I can find in the travel section." There weren't people requesting books too often except for the odd homework assignments, so she jumped at the chance to actually do her job and rushed off to find what Regina had requested without realizing she hadn't even given her the chance to reply.

"Odd girl… I'll never understand what Rumple sees in her." Regina mumbled to herself and motioned Emma to follow her over to the computer. Of course. Internet. She should've thought of that herself. But when it came to magical problems, the technical wonders of this world often alluded her at first. Until Emma had shown up, she hadn't paid much attention to technology at all. But the blonde and their son made sure she was getting used to it more and more. So once she was in front of the computer, she knew how to search for what she was looking for and it didn't take too long for her to find out that what Emma had been sputtering were song lyrics. Even the bit about Acapulco. So no real magic there. Bummer. Knowing the quotes came from songs was helpful though because it brought her a bit closer to a solution. Clearly the next step was to sift through Emma's CD collection and iPod and see if somebody had tempered with one of those items. Thankfully Emma had remained silent like she'd asked and Belle hadn't caught on to anything yet. But if she wanted it to remain that way, it was high time to get out of here again. So she poofed them into Emma's room at the Charming loft, hoping Snow White and the rest of her family weren't home right now.

Her arms full of various travel and Mexican history books, Belle returned to the counter. "So far I've only come across the Acapulco from this world, but maybe Rumple knows…" Realizing she was alone again Belle trailed off and growled because she'd fallen for what clearly hadn't been more than a distraction. That was so like Regina, but Emma participating in it surprised her somewhat. They probably hadn't been looking for quotes either and had just shooed her away to get beneath the library for whatever reason. She just hoped that whatever was going on again now would help her in her quest to reform Rumple even more and decided to pay him a quick visit at his shop to find out if he already knew something about anything.

**Author's Note:**

> songs used:
> 
> Lovesong - The Cure
> 
> Speak In Tongues - Placebo
> 
> No Speech - Guano Apes  
> One More Cup Of Coffee - The White Stripes  
> Hello - Lionel Richie  
> Wild Horses - The Sundays  
> Pour Some Sugar On Me - Def Leppard  
> Girls Just Want To Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper  
> Loco In Acapulco - The Four Tops
> 
> (I'm going with whatever version is playing on my ipod, so the songs listed here will include covers and won't always be the original version of the song)


End file.
